Springtime in Boulgerie

Friday, November 1, 2019 AD

Profesdies, Selium 18, 2205 DE

Play began on Selium 18, shortly before the spring equinox of 2205, and Thriftday of the 3^rd week that month, with Lina gibbous, Cina not quite first quarter, and both waxing.

Over the winter Sybel, Sammuel, and Stephye stayed on Arran Farm. Nielas, missing city life, decided to move to Boulgerie instead. Sybel and Stephye made more or less weekly trips to Boulgerie with Marty in order to sell healing salves that Sybel made and to resupply the farm, and so were able to maintain some contact with Nielas. He seems well and has joined a group he calls “the Organization” which seems as though it may be a guild of thieves.

Sammuel spent the cold months studying the books recovered from the cellars of the abandoned village and visiting with Brent in Kuldhek. In Pretiositas humus foras, which Sammuel had roughly translated from old Calsha as “The value of the land outside,” read about, among many other things, Astrumater Piallus: the Black Star of Piallus, a famous black star sapphire. Putting together the approximate year the book was written and the timing of the Wassen warlord Olban’s sacking of Piallus, he theorized that the Black Star would likely have been captured by Olban and could, possibly, be buried with him somewhere in the north.

Stephye cultivated friendship amongst the guardsmen of Kuldhek and Boulgerie whenever he visited the towns. Thiombur recruited Stephye into militia duty, explaining that as an able-bodied tenant upon the Baron’s land his military service was required. Being perhaps the most skilled fighter after Thiombur, Stephye found himself soon Thiombur’s informal second-in-command. Among those friends he made in Boulgerie was a young fighting man named Ivor.

Sybel carried the group financially through the winter by making healing salves to sell in Boulgerie. She also visited the old wise-woman west of Kuldhek several times and experimented with her hedge magics, ultimately adding another spell to her repertoire.

On Selium 18, Sybel and Stephye went to Boulgerie. Although interested in pursuing Sammuel’s theory about Olban and the Black Star of Piallus, Boulgerie lacks any public library and they had no contacts with private collections to peruse for more information about Olban. Without more to go on, they dropped the idea and instead sought work in caravan guard duty and recruited Ivor to join them. Such duty was easily found working for the Red Duck trading company which was part of a convoy scheduled to leave the next day along with a number of other traders making the three-day trip east to Wrymoor for 1 GP plus board per person. The three accepted the position and spent the remainder of the day rounding out their equipment before returning to Arran Farm for the night.

On Lastday, the 19^th, the three left the farm early in order to form up with the caravan just outside of Boulgerie. Red Duck’s wagon, laden with several large casks, was one of seven vehicles making up the caravan, each with its own retinue of guardsmen, though some had none. The other vehicles in the train were a wagon loaded with construction tools and materials, a fancy passenger coach, a covered wagon with a few people who climbing in and out of it while the train forms up, a small covered horse-cart, a large, open cart carrying small, fancy-looking casks, and a wagon filled with pigs that has a cloth-covered doghouse-like structure in the center, presumably for the pigs to use to get out of the weather. Comments about the smell from the “pig-pen” dominate the chatter amongst the caravaners.